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Twitter Discloses Millions of State-backed Tweets and Accounts

Twitter released all the accounts and related content associated with potential foreign interference in political conversations that the company found on its service since 2016.

In line with principles of transparency and with the goal of improving understanding of foreign influence and information campaigns, Twitter released the full archives of the Tweets and media that are connected with two previously disclosed and potentially state-backed operations on its service: content posted on Twitter by the Internet Research Agency (IRA) and an influence campaign potentially located within Iran.

These large datasets comprise 3,841 accounts affiliated with the IRA, originating in Russia, and 770 other accounts, potentially originating in Iran. They include more than 10 million Tweets and more than 2 million images, GIFs, videos, and Periscope broadcasts, including the earliest on-Twitter activity from accounts connected with these campaigns, dating back to 2009.

"We are making this data available with the goal of encouraging open research and investigation of these behaviors from researchers and academics around the world," Twitter said.

Earlier this year, Twitter committed to the United States Congress and the public to provide regular updates and information regarding our investigation into foreign interference in political conversations on Twitter.

To learn more about what is included and how researchers can download the datasets, visit Twitter's Elections Integrity Hub.